NHL Draft Prospect Profile #12: Teuvo Teravainen

Our #12 prospect is creating a ton of buzz in the last few months. Teuvo Teravainen (or Teräväinen) of Jokerit-Helsinki in the Finnish Elite League has rocketed up draft boards with some excellent international performances and really taken scouts by storm.

Teravainen is one of our favorite prospects to watch in this years draft. He has incredible hockey sense and vision, and is an extremely creative playmaker. Teravainen will attempt passes that most forwards don’t even dream about, feathering pucks through sticks and legs and putting them on the tape of his teammates. He controls the play in the offensive zone often preferring to be a setup man working off the half boards. Teravainen also possesses a very hard and accurate one timer and often unleashes it from the top of the circle. He is especially effective on the Power Play. Teravainen has really worked to improve his skating. He always had good top end speed, but he’s made great strides in improving his first step, his acceleration and his agility. Teravainen has shown that he is willing to take a hit to make a play, despite the fact he is often facing larger opponents.

Teravainen had an excellent tournament in last summer’s Ivan Hlinka, leading the Finnish team in scoring. He would follow that up by leading the entire tournament in scoring in the annual European 5 Nations tourney. He carried the Finnish team in that tournament all the way to the championship. However they had to settle for silver, losing to a deeper Swedish club. He’s carried that impressive performance into the World U18 Tournament, and we felt he was the best player on the ice in Finland’s recent win over Canada.

Teravainen is a bit undersized and this can cause him problems in the defensive zone. He can be overpowered by bigger, stronger opponents, and this may mean that his future is as a Right Wing (where we are told he plays for Jokerit) instead of playing Centre (where we’ve seen him on the Finnish National Squad). We highly doubt he will be NHL ready in 2012-13, as he really needs time to add some muscle to his slight frame. It should however be noted that Teravainen is one of the youngest players eligible for this year’s draft. If he was born a mere 3 days later Teravainen would not be eligible for the 2012 draft and would instead be part of the 2013 Draft class.

Its hard to pin down exactly one player who Teravainen reminds us of, so we are going to compare him what you would get if you took Ales Hemsky of the Edmonton Oilers, and added a great top of the circle PP one-timer to his game.